Why does the education system, including “higher education”, lobby so vigorously against the teaching of creation science? Secular academicians seem to think that part of being intellectual is to question and debunk First Principles of Truth such as “In the beginning, God created…”, and they pressure people to believe as they themselves do on the basis that they are the ones who know the truth because of their academic and intellectual bent.
C.S. Lewis in his classic essay on modern education, The Abolition of Man, wrote almost eighty years ago about “men without chests” – intellectuals whose heads and brains may have been big, but whose chests had atrophied because they had so deconstructed basic First Principles of Truth* that they lost their heart and soul. The atrophied “chests” by comparison made their heads seem even bigger than they were.
Academic groups may say something like, “‘creationism’ is not an alternative scientific theory; it is a set of nonscientific ideas”. With this statement, they try to debunk a First Principle of Truth because the implication is that evolution, in contrast to ‘creationism’, has the status of being “scientific”. The reality is that neither can be “proven” by materialistic science.
Debunking First Principles is really a counterfeit intellectual pursuit – much like situational ethics masquerades for true ethics. It is a way to get people to question their ethics, tear them down, and replace them with humanistic rather than God-given values. In most cases the tendency to debunk First Principles of Truth is simply a technique of argument for justifying amoral or immoral behavior and unbelief.
Furthermore, as Lewis argues, how can a society expect, let alone plead for, moral character in its people when its philosophy of education rips out people’s conscience and conviction by debunking moral principles and accountability beyond themselves? Lewis writes, “Such is the tragi‑comedy of our situation ‑ we continue to clamor for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.”
Eighty years ago, C.S. Lewis was writing extremely well and prophetically about what has been going on in education for quite some time – and which we see today to have metastasized to a great extent. If you haven’t ever read this essay of his, you should.
– Mark Cadwallader, Board Chairman of Creation Moments
REF.: Lewis, C.S., The Abolition of Man: How Education Develops Man’s Sense of Morality, MacMillan Publishing Co, NY, NY, 1947, pg 35. Photo: The undergraduates of University College, Trinity Term 1917. Young C. S. Lewis is standing on the right-hand side of the back row, PD, Wikimedia Commons.
*First Principles of logic, such as that the creation requires a Master Craftsman; or First Principles of morality such as the Ten Commandments.
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